TV games, even a no-hitter, are a no-no for Jon Lester's dad

John Lester was puttering in the garage at his Puyallup home, as usual, when his son joined baseball immortality on Monday night.

Lester simply can't bear to watch Jon — or Jonathan, as he calls him — pitch on television.

It's not superstition, because the elder Lester is just fine when he's in the ballpark watching Jon pitch for the Red Sox, even in games as meaningful as the World Series. He feels "part of the action" in those conditions, Lester said.

But being removed from the stadium, staring at a box, is just too nerve-racking, too helpless, even in high definition. John finds he has an overwhelming urge to yell at the television.

"So my wife [Kathie] watches them, and I wait for updates in the garage," said John Lester, a sergeant in the Pierce County Sheriff's Department.

On this night, there was little to suggest that Jon, a 24-year-old left-hander who was having a solid, but so-far unspectacular season for the Red Sox, was on the verge of something special.

For sheer drama, it would be hard to top Game 4 of last year's World Series. Lester capped his inspiring comeback from a 2006 cancer diagnosis by hurling 5-2/3 shutout innings to defeat the Colorado Rockies in the title clincher.

But darned if Jon Lester didn't do it. Not that his dad saw it in real time.

Before heading to the garage for what he termed "busy work," John did a plumbing project in Kathie's greenhouse. In the seventh inning, Kathie stuck her head in the garage.

"Did you know your son is pitching a no-hitter?" she said.

"Don't tell me about it," he replied.

John already had a suspicion something was up, because his cellphone had been ringing off the hook. But he still resisted the temptation to go inside and watch the conclusion.

"I just listened for the screams coming from the house," he said. "That's when I knew he had done it. I watched the highlights on ESPN later on."

What Jon Lester had done was pitch the first no-hitter by a Boston left-hander in more than 50 years. The Kansas City Royals were the victim, and Lester overpowered them with a 130-pitch effort that ended with a 96-mph fastball that blew away the final hitter, Alberto Callaspo.

Barely 15 minutes later, amid a barrage of congratulatory phone calls to the Lester household, came one from Red Sox manager Terry Francona, whose heartfelt bearhug of Jon Lester on the field bespoke the father-son relationship the two have forged.

Which is just fine with his actual father, who saw how Francona supported Jon after he was diagnosed with lymphoma in August 2006.

"Terry's gone through the whole thing with Jon," he said. "He's that kind of guy — he really cares about his players. I told him he looked like he was going to break my son's neck hugging him. He told me what a special night it was."

What Lester didn't know, until Francona told him, was the emotional maelstrom that was taking place in the Red Sox dugout as Lester mowed down Royals hitters.

"[Francona] said he was getting emotional in the ninth," Lester said, "and he looked over at [pitching coach] John Farrell, who has also been a staunch supporter of Jon.

"Francona said, 'That wussy, he was teary-eyed. Then I started getting teary-eyed, too. There we were crying in the dugout in the middle of a game.' "

Jon Lester has that effect on people, especially after the grace with which he has dealt with his cancer battle.

"Everyone in the organization has such fond feelings toward Jon," said Jed Hoyer, the Red Sox assistant general manager, in a phone interview. "He's been with us since 2002, and obviously he's been through a lot. He's such a terrific kid, you love to root for him."

Lester's gem also reverberated through the South Sound. His high-school coach at Bellarmine Prep in Tacoma, Rick Barnhart, got a call from one of his current players telling him to turn on the TV. Barnhart did so just in time to see the final few outs, and the Francona hug.

"That was the coolest thing to me — there was genuine emotion there," Barnhart said. "Boy, in professional sports, you don't see that too often. A no-hitter is incredible, but that gave me goose bumps. I'm glad Jon is still causing the same reaction from people as he did here. He's just a wonderful kid to be around."

"You feel really happy for him because of the type of young man he is," added Mark Potoshnik, who runs the Northwest Baseball Academy in Lynnwood and worked with Lester as a teen. "You know he's earned it."

Last year, Lester was deemed cancer-free by his doctors at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. Though he has yearned to be regarded as just another pitcher, minus the attendant scrutiny of being a recovered cancer patient, his father believes the no-hitter might mark a distinct change in his son's outlook on that subject.

"He might be able to accept that he means more to people than just being a major-league pitcher," Lester said. "I read a lot of stuff today online from cancer patients, how much this means to them."

Case in point: Just this week, Jon met with a Red Sox minor-league prospect who had just been diagnosed with lymphoma. The youngster's father told John Lester how much it meant for his son to talk to Jon and realize that the disease could be beaten — and how Jon had done it.

"I know that he just wanted to be known as a major-league pitcher, which is fine," John Lester said. "But maybe this game kind of turned it the other way. Jonathan might be ready to embrace that and say, 'Maybe there's more to this. If I'm an inspiration, great.' Now he has the chance."

Larry Stone: 206-464-3146 or lstone@seattletimes.com